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If you fear Amar’e Stoudemire’s explosiveness has vanished, the Knicks power forward promises his burst is going to be returning.
“Stay tuned,” Stoudemire declared yesterday. “Stay tuned.”
With the Knicks’ first half finished and the second half resuming tonight against the Cavaliers at the Garden, Stoudemire and Co. returned to practice yesterday.
Stoudemire has struggled all season and limped into the All-Star break averaging 12 points in his last four games as the Knicks finished the first half 17-18. If the Knicks, who entered last night in seventh place in the Eastern Conference, are going to build on the Linsanity, Stoudemire has to rediscover his game.
“He’s got to be a big part of this,” Mike D’Antoni said. “We can’t win it without him being 100 percent and going like last year.
“He knows that. I’m betting that he has a big second half.”
He goes into tonight averaging 17.5 points on 45 percent shooting. The scoring average would be his worst full-season mark since his rookie campaign, and the shooting percentage would be his worst full-season mark, period. Last season Stoudemire averaged 25.3 points on 50 percent shooting, and for his career, he was at 21.9 points and 54 percent heading into this season.
Stoudemire’s plummet is alarming — especially considering he has three seasons remaining after this on his $100 million deal. He insisted yesterday, however, he struggled in the first half because he was unable to play hoops during the lockout as he recovered from his back injury.
Now, Stoudemire says he’s primed for a breakout in the second half, and D’Antoni agrees.
“Every second half of the year, I’ve got the tendency to turn it up,” Stoudemire said. “It’s going to be an incredible second half of the year for me.”
Added D’Antoni, “I think he’s ready to explode.”
Stoudemire is correct he historically has been a more productive player after the All-Star break. For his career, he’s at 21.0 ppg in the first half and 23.2 ppg in the second half. That said, his shooting percentage is almost identical both from the field and at the line.
D’Antoni also pointed to the 2009-10 season when Stoudemire averaged 21.2 points in the first half for the Suns, then jumped to 26.6 after the break. But again, Stoudemire’s shooting percentage was almost identical pre- and post-break that season.
Stoudemire blames mainly the lockout for his first-half issues.
“The lockout really, it was to my favor to the point I had time to heal. But I didn’t have time to play basketball. I didn’t do any basketball at all,” he said. “I played one game — that was in Miami, that charity game. That was the only time I played full-court basketball. The whole offseason was no up-and-down for me until I got here and played for training camp.”
Stoudemire said the extended layoff threw off his rhythm.
“Whenever you’re away from the game for six months or so, that’s the longest I’ve ever been away from the game of basketball … it was definitely a rhythm thing,” Stoudemire said. “Now I feel great.”
Still, Stoudemire said he believes losing some weight could help. He said he weighed 245 pounds last season but put on 15 pounds of offseason muscle to improve his back.
“I gained a pretty significant amount of weight,” said Stoudemire, who is down to 250 now. “But it was all muscle, which looked good, but to play my style of basketball and really be that force, full-court fast-break guy that I always play like, I might need to shed a few pounds.”
D’Antoni believes much of Stoudemire’s first-half struggles are “psychological.”
“I think he understands he’s got to attack,” D’Antoni said.